Good Shepherd Sunday

This Sunday marks the 46th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. This takes place traditionally on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, which is also called Good Shepherd Sunday. On this day we are asked in a special way to heed those words of Jesus in St. Luke’s Gospel, “Pray, therefore, for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

Ideally, families would spend some time together in prayer over this weekend, asking God to send these laborers even from the midst of their own family. Blessed Pope John XXIII called the Catholic family the cradle of religious and priestly vocations. I wonder how many times a religious or priestly vocation is overlooked simply because the right person at the right place at the right time just hasn’t brought the topic up to some youngster who may be thinking along those lines. All of us must grow in vocation awareness.

At the beginning of the third millennium, Pope John Paul II published a special letter, in which he looked back to the blessings God has poured out on His Church over the centuries. He singled out for special mention the Second Vatican Council, describing it as “the great grace bestowed on the Church in the 20th century.”

Pope John Paul’s letter also looks to the future, trying to discern where the Holy Spirit may be leading us in the 21st century. The Pope suggested that ever since the Second Vatican Council, a vital truth has been maturing in the Church. By way of explanation, he directs our attention to the Council’s great document on the Church, and in particular to its fifth chapter — “The Universal Call to Holiness.” Within that chapter, he points to the crucial statement: “All the faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity.”

Clearly, it isn’t simply priests and nuns, or monks and hermits, who are called to holiness; nor is there some special kind of holiness reserved for them. There is one holiness, and it is to that one holiness that all people of God are called. Since most of the people of God are married lay people, married life — family life — is the way to holiness for the overwhelming majority of the faithful.

Pope John Paul went on to say that one reason why he canonized so many people during his pontificate was to show that holiness is to be found everywhere. He spoke of the “many lay people who (have) attained holiness in the ordinary circumstances of life.” With God’s help, and despite its difficulties, every family can advance in the ways of goodness and holiness. That is why Pope John Paul stated so firmly that “the time has come to re-propose ... to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living,” and insisted that “the whole life of ... Christian families must lead in this direction — in the direction of genuine holiness.”

On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, it is my special prayer that all of our families will respond to their call to holiness. I am convinced it is the surest way to enrich the Church and the world with an abundance of laborers for the harvest in priestly and religious life, as well.

Let me close this Visit with these words from our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, in his own personal message to all of us during this special observance. As we seek to provide laborers for the Lord’s harvest, Pope Benedict’s watchwords are “prayer” and “discernment.” He writes:
“Our first duty, therefore, is to keep alive in families and in parishes, in movements and in apostolic associations, in religious communities and in all the sectors of diocesan life this appeal to the divine initiative with unceasing prayer. “We must pray that the whole Christian people grows in its trust in God, convinced that the ‘Lord of the harvest’ does not cease to ask some to place their entire existence freely at his service so as to work with him more closely in the mission of salvation. “What is asked of those who are called, for their part, is careful listening and prudent discernment, a generous and willing adherence to the divine plan, and a serious study of the reality that is proper to the priestly and religious vocations, so as to be able to respond responsibly and with conviction.”